Humanities Grads Messages to Juniors Considering Humanities Enrollment
With the inauguration of our department website this year we included an alumni survey and asked them a numbe of questions.  The following are some of the responses to the questions on the impact of the course on their lives and what advice they would give to juniors thinking about taking the course. The humanities team hopes that you find these comments helpful and we look forward to working with many of you next year. The named individuals all granted us permission to quote them on the website.
Name	Graduation  Year	Profession or Career Goal	Impact of Humanities	Messages to Juniors
Venus McCoy	1997	Teacher		Just do it! Give it a chance and stick with it...The best things in life won't always come easy.  Humanities is a prime example of this.
Jason Liu	2000	Electrical and computer engineering		If you are willing to actually learn something useful your Senior year, then there should be no decision that needs to be made. TAKE HUMANITIES! The work is hard and there is a lot of it, but I can think of no better class that prepares you for college
Jeff Clear	1988	Teacher	This course was the first that opened my eyes to what the world had to offer.  It allowed me to see how the events of the world interact and influence one another.  The teachers were not just passionate about the material, but also cared about individual students.	Simply put, this is the best course you will ever take in high school and much better than most courses in college.
Stephen Witham	2002	Hiatus	Humanities taught me a lot about how humans make their marks on the world.	Trust me. Take the course. It's hard work, and all, but it is WELL worth the effort. The Humanities Team are a great bunch of teachers, and they all care about their students...You'll learn  a lot of information that is useful to know and fun to know. And it WILL help you in life.
Mimi Lanseur	2003	Student	Now I'm thinking of doing my double major in music and humanities instead of music and biology.  And I am prepared for classes more, I know which classes discuss things that I'm interested in because I know that the course description is talking about.	Take it take it take it!!  It helps to prepare you for college class structure, and I guarantee you'll use the information from readings in your courses.  Plus it's an awesome class and lots of fun and you learn SO MUCH!!
Weatherly Verhelst	1987	Clergy	I use aspects of Humanities every day, as I plan for worship services, write sermons, and teach my children...I only hope there is a humanities course when they are in high school.	You may not choose to to into an overtly humanities-related field, but you will learn to structure your thoughts more completely, learn valuable note-taking skills, and you will learn lessons about the development of Western Civilization which will serve you every day of your life.
Eric Wucherer	2003	Student	It was an overall excellent experience.	It is a LOT of work; It is also usually a great idea if you're planning to go to college the next year, as the staggered scheduling is what college is like.  Plus, if you're up to doing the work and trying to succeed, it is a lot of fun.
Paul Dobryden	2000	Student		What are you lazy?  This is your culture folks-learn it.
	1998	Student	Humanities introduced me to the "lecture/discussion"plan of classes which is so common in college. Humanities made me feel more at home as a denizen of the Western world  and enhanced my awareness of culture past and present.	My freshman year at college, I collected my Humanities notes when home for Thanksgiving. I just felt happier having them in my dorm room with me. Humanities definitely leaves you with a feeling of having really learned something--if you go into it willing to do the learning.
Tim Webb	1999	Archaeologist		I would strongly recommend humanities to any student as it is the closest course to that of a university setting. Furthermore the information gained is used throughout other disciplines and is the basis of numerous other aspects of academic study. Most importantly it is just fun.
Kristi Gilbert	1986	Marketing	The number one thing that I took away from Humanities, is an understanding that there is not one aspect of a society's culture that operates independently of another.  Art, music, politics, literature do not exist in a vacuum; they each have a very large influence on the others.  And that, I believe...is something that you can actually take with you and use your entire life to help you try and understand the world.	If you do not take this class, you are missing out on one of the hardest and best classes you will ever have had the opportunity to take in your pre-college education.  It is also a GREAT college prep class....
Michelle Stempien	1989	Education Curator Kalamazoo Inst. of Arts	I don't know how many times I've pulled from my humanities experiences throughout college, graduate school and now in my job working in an art museum.  I will also be teaching a humanities type course at the local community college this fall and I've already been thinking back to how Pioneer's humanities cross-disciplinary approach will help me present art, music, literature and culture to my students.	Humanities was the class that prepared me for college. Writing, thinking analyzing-it was all there.
Lynn Kowalewski	1980	Senior Art Director Atlantic Records	It (humanities) gave me a greater respect for other cultures.  It made we want to travel to Europe frequently (especially Italy!)	Take the class!  It was the most entertaining and informative course I took as a Pioneer student (along with 3 years of Frau D's German classes.)